Our research focuses on the
application of computational
methods to the study of organic reactivity in diverse environments
(in the gas phase, in solution, in the interiors of biological macromolecules,
as part of organometallic complexes). The intimate relationship between
theory and experiment pervades each of these endeavors, and a focus of
our work is the design of molecular architectures with unusual reactivity.

"Playfulness
is an incentive for the scientist and a motor of progress."

Making Computational Chemistry Accessible to the Blind & Visually Impaired

3D Printing

Organic
Molecules with Unusual Properties

Sulfur-Lone Pair Interactions

5-Center 4-Electron Cations and Their Relatives

Unusual Oxonium Cations

Carbenes

Sigmatropic Shiftamers

Sigma-Polyacenes

Fickle Hexadienes

Tetrathiafulvalenes under Extreme Conditions

Physical
Organometallic Chemistry

Metal-Promoted Sigmatropic Shifts

Iron-Promoted Electrocyclic Reactions

Interactions of Chromium Arenes with Reactive Intermediates

Rates,
Regio- and Stereoselectivity of Synthetically Useful Reactions

Organocatalysis

Schmidt Rearrangements

Radical Cation Diaza-Cope Rearrangements

Oxidopyrilum Zwitterion + Alkene Cycloadditions

Nazarov Electrocyclizations

Reactivity of Enamines and Iminium Ions Built from Aziridines

Dissecting Dyotropic Rearrangements

Lewis Acid Promoted Tandem Sigmatropic Shifts/Aromatic Substitutions

Diazocinone-forming Cascades

Semibullvalene Bromination

The Cationic Cascade Route to Longifolene

Rearrangements of Housane Radical Cations

Stereoselectivity of Intramolecular Diels-Alder Reactions

Regio- and Stereoselectivity of alpha-Lactam Ring-Opening Reactions

"If you don't
know the past, how can you know the future?"

- Tony
Bennett

"...it is through
training in pure research that the mind is best prepared to capitalize
broadly on chances as they arise... My area, physical organic chemistry,
is a highly interdisciplinary pursuit that provides the principles for
the design and synthesis of organic molecules with the goal of uncovering
the origins of their structure and properties. It is the conceptual basis
for the modern arenas of stereoselective, biomimetic, and materials chemistry.
It provides basic tools for medicinal, environmental, and biological chemistry.
So, why is physical organic chemistry viewed as off-limits to young scientists
who have hopes of establishing research funding? What spoiled the passion
for such a central theme in chemistry? Could it be that 'visionaries'
who 'knew the way' were allowed to project their futures on that of the
field without regard for diversity?"

- Jay
Siegel, C&EN, March 26, 2001, p.114

"..the compounds
just described [(C5H5)2MX2, M = V, Nb, Ta, X = Cl, Br] were the lineal
ancestors of today's marvelous so-called single-site catalysts for olefin
polymerization. They were discovered, I would like to emphasize, not by
people who had written a grant proposal to work on olefin polymerization,
but by people who were funded to do fundamental research that had no predictable
practical use."

- F.
A. Cotton, J. Organomet. Chem.2001, 637-639,
18-26

"It has always
seemed to me that the most attractive applications of theory are to explore
the unknown. If you want to find something truly new, your chances are
better if you look in new places."

- Paul
Schleyer, J. Comp. Chem.2001, 13, ix-xi

"Every attempt to employ mathematical methods in the study of chemical questions must be considered profoundly irrational and contrary to the spirit of chemistry."